Sunday, September 1, 2013

Concerning the Biblical Allusions

The Biblical allusions in Chaucer's The Wife of Bath greatly enhance the underlying metaphor of the work, and are integral to the overall message of Chaucer's poem. The motif for the work is a criticism and satirical outlook on women who take advantage of spineless men. To make an allusion to modern times, the poem is similar in theme to "Gold Digger" by Kanye West. The woman is essentially a parasitic human who feeds off of the kindness of men and desperately desires that which she cannot have. 

The first allusion that stuck out to me was the reference to Sampson and Delilah. The reference emphasizes the traitorous nature of the Wife of Bath. She compares herself to Delilah, who cut Sampson's hair and sold him to his enemies while he slept. This is equivalent to what she does with her men. She marries them, uses them, then kills them (at least, I inferred that she killed them). 

The second allusion that stuck out to me was the literary allusion to Clytaemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon. In the Greek Trilogy The Oresteia, Clytaemnestra murders her husband Agamemnon after he returns from war with a concubine. In comparing herself with Clytaemnestra, she is implying that she may have possibly murdered her past husbands.

Questions:

1. What is the significance of the allusion to King Solomon?

2. What other allusions stood out to others?

1 comment:

  1. Okay, first thing, love the call out to Kanye. However, I don't think she kills them. To me, the Sampson reference gave me the impression that rather than kill them, she robs me of their remaining shreds of dignity then basically rides their money until they keel over from extreme age.

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